"The $43 Million Islamophobia Machine"

[Jankyn]

Yeah, that American fear and hatred of Muslims in the post-9/11 world? It's not a "grassroots" thing. It's manufactured.

via COLORLINES: "The $43 Million Islamophobia Machine":

Is President Obama a secret Muslim? Is Sharia law the radical scourge that’s threatening the very fabric of U.S. democracy? Contrary to the saying, a lie repeated often enough won’t make it a true. But that doesn’t mean anti-Muslim activists, armed with millions of dollars of foundation support, won’t stop trying.

It turns out a handful of seven donors have given nearly $43 million over the last decade to fund a close network of right-wing intellectuals and scholars who’ve concocted and fanned Islamophobic hysteria to push an anti-Muslim political agenda.

Read more: "The $43 Million Islamophobia Machine".

[Turbineguy]

1. Thanks.

I needed that to debunk some wingnut claptrap.

[snagglepuss]

2. Also manufactured is the appearance worldwide of Islamism brought about by

billions of dollars the Saudis have spent over forty years spreading their destructive Wahabism. Highly financed propaganda exists on both sides, for anyone to ignore either is to have drunk the koolaid.

[pampango]

3. Gotta keep that fear flowing and the money coming in.

At the link:

“Arabic is not just another language like French or Italian, it is the spearhead of an ideological project that is deeply opposed to the United States,” Pam Geller wrote in February on her right-wing blog Atlas Shrugs. She is closely connected with David Horowitz, whose anti-Muslim group the David Horowitz Freedom Center has raked in $8.3 million in the last decade. Or, in the words of Bridgitte Gabriel: “ have no soul. They are dead set on killing and destruction.”

It’s the kind of extremist thought leadership that has paved the way for Rep. Peter King’s congressional hearings on the supposed Islamic radicalization of the country. They’re the authors whose anti-Muslim rants were cited dozens of times in the Oslo, Norway shooter Behring Breivik’s manifesto. These are the people who’ve singlehandedly brought anti-Sharia laws to over a dozen statehouses. They’re the machine that’s given rise to the idea that Obama might secretly be Muslim, and that were that true, it’d somehow be a terrible offense.

But the manufactured threat has been overblown, experts say. A 2010 study from Duke University found that the imagined threat of Muslim fundamentalists committing acts of terrorism was exaggerated. The study tracked 139 known radicalized Muslim-Americans who had attempted to carry out acts of terrorism or had been prosecuted in connection with suspected acts of terrorism—they are just a handful of the nation’s 2.6 million Muslims.*

[texshelters]

4. Manufacturing fear is the only thing the right has to

garner votes.

And by the way, Colorlines is a great site.

Peace.

Peace,
Tex Shelters